Fans will get what they want with 'Mariachi Meets the Smiths'

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Set us as preferred Perhaps no one genre of music screams “Mexican” more than mariachi music.Yet a close second is probably the melodic sound of British rock band the Smiths.Many have pondered why Mexicans and Mexican Americans have such an affinity for those blokes from across the pond.

Maybe it’s that lead singer Morrissey’s outsider mentality and melancholic words resonate with the demographic — or there’s something acutely relatable about the melodramatic musings of a romantic yearner.Decades ago, The Times’ own Gustavo Arellano explored the Smiths and Morrissey’s appeal to Latinos and Mexicans, specifically.Music Let’s face it.

Morrissey is strange.That’s not a put-down.

That’s a statement of fact.He noted that Morrissey’s malaise mirrors the sentiment of many ranchera songs, also citing that his effeminate onstage persona is a perfect subversion of Mexican machismo.

These elements make the singer an anglophone mash-up of Pedro Infante and Juan Gabriel, Arellano added.Both the Smiths and mariachi music can drive even the most macho Mexican man to tears with their poetic lyrics and layered instrumentals.

To celebrate the special choke hold these musical stylings have on Mexican Americans in Southern California, the L.A.-based group Mariachi Tierra Mia is putting on a “Mariachi Meets the Smiths” show at the Ford amphitheater on Sunday.The show will merge not only the cultural resonance of the two in Mexican American culture, but also unite the sounds.

The idea to incorporate elements of mariachi music into a cover of a Smiths tune happened by happenstance in December 2024.Members of Mariachi Tierra Mia were performing at a Christmas party when an attendee requested that the group perform the 1984 Smiths track “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.”The ensemble’s leader, Maira Solis, didn�...